(CNN) – Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus linked the women's health provider Planned Parenthood to the killing of newborn children in an op-ed article published Wednesday on the conservative website RedState.com.

His article – under the headline "Media Covers up Democrat-Backed Planned Parenthood's Support for Infanticide" - blasted the media for not covering the recent testimony of a Planned Parenthood representative in Florida, who provided veiled responses to questions from state lawmakers on what should happen to a baby born after a botched abortion.
"That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider," the Planned Parenthood representative, Alisa LaPolt Snow, said during her testimony. Priebus does include a section of the back-and-forth where Snow acknowledges "[t]hat's a very good question. I really don't know how to answer that."

"Not once in her testimony did the Planned Parenthood representative say the newborn baby has a right to life," Priebus wrote in his opinion piece. "Not once did she say anyone has a duty to care for the child. Whether the living, breathing child survives is up to the adults in the room because, as we now know, Planned Parenthood doesn't believe the baby has rights."

In a statement, Planned Parenthood wrote the lawmakers in Florida were inquiring about a "vague set of extremely unlikely and highly unusual medical circumstances."

"Medical guidelines and ethics already compel physicians facing life-threatening circumstances to respond, and Planned Parenthood physicians provide high-quality medical care and adhere to the most rigorous professional standards, including providing emergency care," the group wrote. "In the extremely unlikely event that the scenario presented by the panel of legislators should happen, of course Planned Parenthood would provide appropriate care to both the woman and the infant."

Long the focus of Republican ire, federal funding for Planned Parenthood arose during the 2012 presidential election when GOP nominee Mitt Romney vowed to "get rid" of the organization during an interview with a local television reporter in St. Louis.

That remark prompted an angry response from Democrats, who claimed Romney was aiming to eliminate an important source of women's health care – including mammograms and cervical cancer screenings.

In his article, Priebus recalled the Planned Parenthood barbs from last year's race, and said Democrats – including President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz - should be held accountable for their support of the organization.

"In the last election, Republicans were repeatedly asked about whether they supported cutting funding to Planned Parenthood. It's time Democrats are asked whether they still support funding an organization that refuses to care for a newborn," he wrote.

soundoff(409 Responses)

The Answer

Well, quite frankly the answer to avoid abortions is for men to seriously control their out-of-control bedroom desires and for women to close their legs and keep them closed! What could be simpler? And/or to make condom usage a MUST each time, a small price to pay for security. Then we wouldn't be having all of these problems to being with!

I for one am tired of abortion being on the table of lawmakers (and breakers). It is a WOMANS personal choice and what seems to be a political party issue has now ballooned into a party house of official "propaganda" statements that are at the very least misleading and misquoted by Mr. Priebus. If he would like to step forward, bring Mr. Romney with him, and write personal checks for support to all the women who choose abortion as an alternative then I say "bring it". Our leaders often strive to force moral issues into law yet seem to lack the skills necessary to act morally. The litterbox of WA DC is growing more corrupt and misguided each year. Our governing body is a joke in international circles, full of cocky do-gooders that live, vote and become rich by corporate sponsorship and selling out their constituents.

April 4, 2013 02:38 pm at 2:38 pm |

why do you have to be so political

I am for a woman's right to choose but infanticide is disgusting and should be illegal.

April 4, 2013 02:39 pm at 2:39 pm |

Sniffit

"Okay, then why doesn't the Republican party stand for birth control?"

Because the church still lives by an anachronistic policy that has its roots in wanting as many new tithe-payers to be born as possible.

April 4, 2013 02:39 pm at 2:39 pm |

PAW

Dear GOP: How about spending less time on so-called social issues, which are really personal in nature and not anyone else's business (like gay marriage and abortion), and get on with doing the real work you've been avoiding.

April 4, 2013 02:40 pm at 2:40 pm |

scarf

Another example of the GOP's "Nothing wrong with our message" mentality. And they think that, by continuing to preach to the choir, that they will convert the heathen independent voters...........

April 4, 2013 02:40 pm at 2:40 pm |

chill

Priebus the Liar. Usual tricks- taking a statement from one individual and attritbuting it not only to the entire organization (who clearly stated that they would provide care to an infant born alive), but to anyone who has supported all the good work that organization has done. Should the GOP be blamed as a whole for all the idiot statements some of their members have made. Are all Republicans adulterers because Mark Sanford is? Grow up.

April 4, 2013 02:40 pm at 2:40 pm |

Milie

I'm 23, I'm a single mom of an 8 year old child. I've learned to be very careful with birth control methods the hard way. I got off of government help five years ago and I support my son and I by myself. I was with planned parenthood and was on their insurance which was awesome, I got reduced fees and prices. The insurance was cut from planned parenthood and now my appointment bill was 235 and the birth control I'm on is 60$. I let go of my cell phone. Thanks jerks. Stay out of our personal decisions. Why didn't they just ban the usage of funds from being used on abortions but still help the women who need other appointments and services? Geez

April 4, 2013 02:40 pm at 2:40 pm |

Rudy NYC

goblackhawks

John in Brooklyn – the only anti-woman party is the DEM party. the misogyny on the left for good people like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman is sick ..
--------------------
By your logic then, the misogymy on the right for good people like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid makes the GOP the anti-black, the anti-progressive, and the anti-seniors party.

April 4, 2013 02:41 pm at 2:41 pm |

DarrellSF

Listening to Priebus is as bad as listening to Palin or Bachmann. It's all lies and twisting of circumstances.

Sure, Hold the Democrats responsible for their support of Planned Parenthood. I'm proud of my support for Planned Parenthood. And please hold Priebus and the other Republicans responsible for the hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq, and the carnage every day on our streets, from the proliferation of guns that they have supported. I'm sure there were more than a few fetus' killed in Iraq by Bush/Cheney, AND on the streets of America by the GOPs favorite weapons of mass carnage.

A child conceived of American citizens is an American citizen at the point of conception, and should be protected under our Constitution. Every American citizen has equal rights. A woman’s body is her own until she shares it with another human being and the fact that a child has an innate destiny to become a human being; no one has a right to destroy the child. John W Hargis Sr #Quote #ProLife

April 4, 2013 02:42 pm at 2:42 pm |

mec

Makes some sense. Liberals have been wanting easier and easier abortions and this is just the next step. Liberals don't know when to stop as they view anything as "progress".

April 4, 2013 02:43 pm at 2:43 pm |

Chris from Chicago

I wonder if people here realize that the planned parenthood representative Reince was writing about, had basically said she believes in full birth abortion. In other words, picture your baby outside your belly and you decide you don't want it, so you kill it.

This isn't even a debate, Reince is completely correct. a fully born baby is NOT a fetus. Taking his or her life is murder.

April 4, 2013 02:43 pm at 2:43 pm |

James

Suggest? Its not a suggestion, its a fact. Abortion is murder.

April 4, 2013 02:43 pm at 2:43 pm |

insanitydefense

The planned parenthood official's confused answer is perfectly understandable. The question itself – "what to do about a baby who survived an attempted abortion and was delivered alive?" is so horrendously stupid as to not elicit a response. When has that ever happened that a fetus survived an abortion attempt by a physician and then somehow was born/delivered? If a baby is alive at the moment of birth – then the baby is alive at the moment of birth and all the usual laws apply. The fact that planned parenthood got confused about the nature of the question was more of a result of its sheer stupidity rather than a belief that a baby does not have rights.

Incidentally, if there is a case of that ever happening – of a fetus surviving being stabbed by a surgical instrument while in the womb and then being dragged out by a physician into open air "to finish the job" – upon reaching adolescence, we should give this baby a cape and some tights and insist that it fights crime.

April 4, 2013 02:44 pm at 2:44 pm |

v_mag

It is about time that someone points out the obvious: Life begins BEFORE conception. Deal with that, right wingers.

April 4, 2013 02:44 pm at 2:44 pm |

Scott

The republicans think we are stupid, "We loose because they can't understand our message, we need to change how we say things". No, we speak English too, we are as well or better educated than you are, we understand what you are saying.
You loose because you can't keep your noses out of other people's personal lives, you want to force your morals on everyone. Your message is about economics, forcing more and more people into the work force and making it harder to survive on one job so your buddies in big business will have cheap labor. Your message is about holding women down not paying them the same amount for the same work. That's why you loose because we DO understand your message.

April 4, 2013 02:45 pm at 2:45 pm |

Really

This from the same party that wants to eliminate programs to help feed, educate, and house children born to poor parents. I would like to hear Prince Reibus explain how during the short journey through the birth canal the baby goes from being precious life to a leech sucking on the government teat.

April 4, 2013 02:45 pm at 2:45 pm |

DirkBurton

From a recovering liberal: If conservatives were even fractionally as evil and selfish as most posters here proclaim them to be, then they would be jubilant at the thought of all those liberal mothers mass murdering the next generation of liberals. Isn't that why you've found it necessary to import a continuous supply from Mexico?

Perhaps it's a religious issue for some; but by no means is that the motivation for all who oppose abortion. As an agnostic scientist, I find the current definition of when human life begins to be one of political and legal convenience, having little relevance to biological fact. From a purely biological perspective, all the genetic material that defines a human organism is present from the moment of conception. Beyond that point nothing but nourishment and a protective environment are added. Following birth a child remains dependent upon adults to provide the same basic needs until reaching adulthood (and, unfortunately, for some [mostly liberals] throughout adulthood as well). Throughout the stages of human development only the degree of dependence changes. What is it that those who support abortion believe makes the unborn non-human? If you think they're not alive while in the womb, then you should make arrangements to be present to observe a late term abortion. Watch as the partially-born child's arms and legs squirm in agony as the sharp surgical instrument is driven through its neck and into its brain in attempt to kill it before it can take its first breath. THEN, tell me that you didn't witness the killing of a human being. I still find it difficult to imagine that a woman can undergo an abortion without feeling compelled to take her own life as well. Maybe that's because it's so difficult to accept the reality of the societal erosion that decades of liberalism have wrought.

He wants to force women who have to thalidomide for cancer to give birth to babies that they know will have horrific birth defect.

April 4, 2013 02:47 pm at 2:47 pm |

Elliott Carlin

It doesn't matter who says it (and I'm no fan of the establishment) but the comments about Dims and Planned Parenthood couldn't be more true. Started by a racist self hating human, Planned Parenthood has done untold more devastating damage to the black family than anything else, except perhaps our own government. Margaret Sanger was Hitlerian in her views. Shame on the Dims. And yes, RINOs as well.